Living Presence

Syntax

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Feb 26, 2012
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Well, my whole life I enjoyed listening to music. For me the human voice is the real 'magic' of recorded music. The human voice and the fact, that 40 years ago, there were made the best and most fascinating recordings of all time, amaze me every time when I listen to my records. So the system is for me the transmitter to the most intelligent and creative musicians who lived at this time and who were never surpassed, no matter what kind of music, classic, jazz, pop, rock etc.
Recorded Sound of such realism and definition that the musical performances come to life right in your home.
Dead-silent Background, microdynamic slam, vivid three-dimensionality, ultradetail and harmonic sophistication is flowered in living colors. The kind of "You Are There" realism and emotionally engaging sound that delivers the sound of The Real Thing.

6D3E4204-3869-44B6-A3B7-8C181DB22BB3.jpeg

Good Audio Engineering is timeless

Fidelity Research FR-1Mk3F

The most advanced cartridge in the FR-1 series, the FR-1Mk3F was the first MC cartridge in the world to use pure silver wire for the coils.
As a conductor, pure silver has lower resistance than any other metal. Therefore, efficiency is greatly improved without the need to make any other alterations in cartridge design. Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab (MFSL) used the FR-64s / B-60 / FR-1Mk3F combination in the former times for Playback.
Coreless coil to prevent hysteresis distortion, extremely durable suspension, this "F" version is shockingly superior to a lot of modern cartridges. When the Phonstage can handle the output, a superior cartridge for any Linear tracking tonearm, too. Updated Diamond & Cantilever from a Japanese Master greatly improving high-range response.

D833166E-E505-4D6E-9E88-1EC5C33DC28D.jpeg


Specifications

Frequency response: 10Hz to 45 kHz
Inter channel balance: within 1dB at 1kHz
Stereo separation: better than -22dB at 20kHz
Output voltage: 0.14mV
Load impedance: 10 ?
Tracking force: 2.1g
Vertical tracking angle: 15 degrees
Stylus tip: Custom made diamond
Weight: 10g

4D408B52-D52D-497D-A778-47838DDE623E.jpeg
 
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Syntax

Well-Known Member
Feb 26, 2012
259
307
970
At The Dark Side
Another move ...

The Voice

Custom Made Monitoring System.
Special designed Crossover, selected chassis with no interaction to the room,

The Voice  - 1 (2).jpeg

The whole system is tri-amplification. Each woofer is sealed cabinet, 18 to 80 Hz with 500 Watt amplifier with active DSP. The woofer driver is a 18" unit with an BxL of 32 and maximum excursion of total 28 mm in sealed 70 litres. Mid bass and mid-highs is a 2 way system with 8" field coil paper driver with huge choke power supply and 80 000 ? filtering. 12 V supply.
The tweeter is a 28 lbs unit which goes from 800 to 45 000 Hz.
A ribbon / planar hybrid with 100 dB efficiency (past crossover).
These two are mounted in an inverse ultraflex cabinet with a combination of 1st order electrical x-over (1 coil in low-mid - 1 capacitor in mid-high) in conjunction with approbiate mechanical filtering in low-pass (pre-chamber) and high-pass (super short tactrix).
The cabinet itself has a special adjusted build-in mechnical high-pass with -3dB at 80Hz. Thus giving a pretty smooth melting between the active 18" woofer and the 8" mid-low driver.

The Voice  - 1 (3).jpeg

The whole system has measured 99.5 dB efficiency.
Max. SPL 128 dB.
Phase never worse than 8°. Pretty flat response whole band. The prime design goals were:
- maximum resolution
- maximum possible constant sound dispersion - a real soundstage recreation
- even if seated way outside the sweet spot
- real 3-dimensional soundstage
- with not only left - right and front - back location, but real heights differences.

The Voice  - 1.jpeg



Its smooth, yet very detailed and open sound is an important part in the full picture.Thanks to a crossover that does not present a terribly complex load, The Voice can be driven with anything from strong monoblocks to your favorite SET.
 

jeff1225

Well-Known Member
Jan 29, 2012
3,007
3,249
1,410
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Well, my whole life I enjoyed listening to music. For me the human voice is the real 'magic' of recorded music. The human voice and the fact, that 40 years ago, there were made the best and most fascinating recordings of all time, amaze me every time when I listen to my records. So the system is for me the transmitter to the most intelligent and creative musicians who lived at this time and who were never surpassed, no matter what kind of music, classic, jazz, pop, rock etc.
Recorded Sound of such realism and definition that the musical performances come to life right in your home.
Dead-silent Background, microdynamic slam, vivid three-dimensionality, ultradetail and harmonic sophistication is flowered in living colors. The kind of "You Are There" realism and emotionally engaging sound that delivers the sound of The Real Thing.

View attachment 77488

Good Audio Engineering is timeless

Fidelity Research FR-1Mk3F

The most advanced cartridge in the FR-1 series, the FR-1Mk3F was the first MC cartridge in the world to use pure silver wire for the coils.
As a conductor, pure silver has lower resistance than any other metal. Therefore, efficiency is greatly improved without the need to make any other alterations in cartridge design. Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab (MFSL) used the FR-64s / B-60 / FR-1Mk3F combination in the former times for Playback.
Coreless coil to prevent hysteresis distortion, extremely durable suspension, this "F" version is shockingly superior to a lot of modern cartridges. When the Phonstage can handle the output, a superior cartridge for any Linear tracking tonearm, too. Updated Diamond & Cantilever from a Japanese Master greatly improving high-range response.

View attachment 77481


Specifications

Frequency response: 10Hz to 45 kHz
Inter channel balance: within 1dB at 1kHz
Stereo separation: better than -22dB at 20kHz
Output voltage: 0.14mV
Load impedance: 10 ?
Tracking force: 2.1g
Vertical tracking angle: 15 degrees
Stylus tip: Custom made diamond
Weight: 10g

View attachment 77482
Just bought a FR-1Mk3F off US Audiomart, thank you for the recommendation Syntax. I'll report back my findings once I set it up!
 
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Syntax

Well-Known Member
Feb 26, 2012
259
307
970
At The Dark Side
....have you ever gone to a concert before the music starts and as you walk into the auditorium itself, notice the sound of the hall itself that is so "alive" that the ambience hits you in the face with its presence? It's all around you and has a specific feeling of "realness", of "being there". When the music starts, that characteristic becomes the context you hear the music in. It's the environment the music is in. Sometimes it is in a way recorded in the grooves and the FR-66s allows you to hear it. A lot of carts have some unique abilities but the FR-1Mk3F has something which is like a hit in the face in the very first second: It opens a room between the speakers in a way which is very hard to describe, so deep, so wide... in a way, the listeners looks into the recording session (when you listen to older records which were done with a few microphones).

Syntax  - 1 (1).jpeg

The FR-1Mk3F has an uncanny ability to illuminate subtle dynamic information. Listening to Paul Paray conduct Chabrier's, Espana (Mercury Living Presence, SR-90212), I was amazed how much new information I heard in the opening section, instruments appearing with a clarity and placement that I have obviously been missing. The opening section is among the most amazing ones ever recorded, the image clarity, full-range harmonic expansion, and tonal purity are unique. Overall dynamics were unrestrained, easily reproducing the natural, and often elusive details of a live performance. I can confidently report that the tonearm presents a fulfilled and vivid sonic image that sounds like music. A combination of balance, stability, and neutrality allows the music to flow with what you might call an effortless grace. This effortlessness, as if the harmonic and dynamic range have no boundaries, is one of the FR-66s most enchanting characteristics.

Syntax  - 1.jpeg


The first qualities you notice are the extremely wide-reaching dynamics and dead silent background. But aside from its high resolution, the FR-1Mk3F has among the fastest, cleanest transient response of any cartridge I've heard at any price. Metal sounds like metal, yet there was nothing intrinsically bright about the FR-1Mk3F sound, which was full-bodied, deep, extremely well defined, and as fast on bottom as on top. The midrange was full but not excessively so, resulting in superbly coherent transient and harmonic performance from top to bottom. The FR-1Mk3F has the slam and fullness preferred by moving-magnet devotees, but with the resolution and speed of a top moving-coil. The cartridge produces a stability of the Instruments within the soundstage, as well as an independently stable soundstage itself. This affords the music the ability to exist even in a small listeners room. It was a long time comparison with Lyra Olympos, Titan i, Delos, Kleos, Atlas, several Koetsu Stones with/without Diamond cantilever, Benz, Transfiguration, Air Tights, Zyx and a lot more I forgot and did use them side by side with most modern Arms and SME 3012R / V, Kuzma, Well Tempered, several Graham Arms and FR-64s / 66s Arms witch each of them. Same with my former Denon 103, 103R etc. I was a slow learner, thought at the beginning, newer, more expensive has to be better, but more and more I got the result, these FR Arms are superior to any other Arms with their ability, to track signals like radar, to amplify them with a unique physical tonal force and their ability, to take every cartridge and shows its best. With all cartridges named above. You hear more from what is in the groove. More believable…And also fascinating: This combo show how good these old, floppy, cheap 5$ vinyls really are, all the dynamic, the musical flow, the tonal balance … most reissues are pale/lifeless in comparision… guess it has to do with pressing knowledge which is gone forever when CD started. Anyway, they open the doors for other types of music and I don't have a break in the time jump back...

FR-66s.jpg

But, best is, go out, listen to different units and do your own learning. It is all brain and part of the designers ability. Some are better than others…..



Some lines to records:


Print-through starts self-erasing the tape signal from the high frequencies on down, so the high frequencies are the first to deteriorate, and will always suffer more than the midrange or bass frequencies. With reissues, in most cases the engineer will need to boost the highs to bring back something close to the original tonal balance, but boosting can compensate for a loss of signal amplitude but it cannot compensate for a loss of signal information. Some designers try to compensate it in their designs, sometimes successful, mostly not. they don't pass the test of time, they become boring after a while, their sonic fingerprint is audible in every reproduction. That coloration can disturb, the owners want to get rid of it and roll the investment dice again and again. That cartridge needs knowledge from the Listener, someone who wants a tool and knows what to do with it to get the best out of it.

Syntax  - 1 (4).jpeg

The Divinity

On Joan Baez The first 10 Years, there was a sense of Joan standing in front of you in three dimensions you can see her, and the outline of her guitar, and you felt as if you were listening from the other side of the microphone. The energy just kept coming, as it would if you heard Joan live. The boundary line between her head and the expanse of airy, empty stage behind her was revealed with uncanny precision. You could hear the very weak echo of her voice bouncing off the stage's side wall and you could feel the air circulating on the stage behind her.

London CS 6006 Espana
From the very first moment you can hear a Performance which is spectacular with the Titan i, with stunning mid and low bass. There is a clarity and impact which is outstanding. Imaging is unusually good, the soundstage is wide linked with appropriate depth.


London CS 6046 Nights in the Garden of Spain
The better the units are the more you can hear the subtle interplay between guitar and orchestra. The Solist is not wrapped into the orchestra, his playing has its own volume and strength.
Clarity, warmth, dynamics are keywords for these records

London CS 6205
short description: SOUNDSTAGE / AMBIENCE / PRESENCE

Lyrita SRCS 109 Arnold - English Dances
Very problematic record, with Phono- / Linestages which miss the sonic target by a mile it is simply awful, really horrible, when the System is really done right, it is a killer Performance. The first time when my cup of tea went cold while listening was with a Lamm chain (LL2.1, LP2, M1.2R) and the Cadence / Coherence II pass with flying colors...

RCA LSC 2400 - Ballet Music from the Opera
The Verdi selections continue with the Triumphal March, also from Aida. It receives a spectacular performance that almost convinces me of its musical worth. The antiphonal trumpets are recorded very well, especially their boulevard-wide vibrato. Its flavour is magnificent in its gaudiness and emphasizes the grand nature of the opera. The string tone is vibrant, the tactile sense of bow on string sounding rich and very sensual. Macro and micro dynamics are represented truthfully, with percussion instruments adding to the wonderful overall effect. Placement of instruments is pinpoint within the large soundstage, and unison woodwinds and upper strings are separated easily by space and timbre.

Mercury SR 90212 Chabrier Espana
That was the first session in their new recording hall in Detroit. The abilities from Paray shine here at his best. There is an „easy going“ through the complex Performance which is very hard to find. The first notes of Espana, the opening, is among the most impressive moments you can get from a record. When we talk about the Golden Era of Analog, that one is a part of it.


The Royal Ballet Gala Performances LDS 6065
1. Series Classic Records 180gr, 1993, very, very well done, better than the following ones.
Soundstage, Dynamics, Details ...it doesn't get better than this. A milestone.

...and that one

Black Gold from the former time ... unsurpassed in Performance

SXL 6040.jpg
 

Syntax

Well-Known Member
Feb 26, 2012
259
307
970
At The Dark Side
Refurbish of Fidelity Research Arms

Tonearm has been completely restored.

38C129B2-E56E-4D64-8CFD-C6471DA33AA8.jpeg

FB76D58F-8813-4477-92A2-041EC0607B2C.jpeg


New ABEC-9 tight Tolerance Bearings Video…




EC118B2B-A443-4EC1-80C5-0ECA6A271E19.jpeg


Bearing set precisely with Torque Wrench, with no play and no over tightness.
Bearings has been replaced with ABEC-9 highest quality bearing with proper location.

The dynamic VTF spring has been properly lubricated with Synthetic Grease.

The Ikeda silver wire has been replaced with AnalogMagik Reference Tonearm Silver Wire, with Silver Braided Shield.
WBT 0102 AG Silver Plug installed.

4EA26239-8FC6-4DE6-8A02-64E2E30B9F67.jpeg


0FD58326-FCBC-4D06-9A9E-C385A829B481.jpeg
 
Last edited:

Direct Drive

Well-Known Member
Sep 16, 2020
148
141
115
East Anglia, UK
Refurbish of Fidelity Research Arms

Tonearm has been completely restored.

View attachment 78776

View attachment 78777


New ABEC-9 tight Tolerance Bearings Video…




View attachment 78778


Bearing set precisely with Torque Wrench, with no play and no over tightness.
Bearings has been replaced with ABEC-9 highest quality bearing with proper location.

The dynamic VTF spring has been properly lubricated with Synthetic Grease.

The Ikeda silver wire has been replaced with AnalogMagik Reference Tonearm Silver Wire, with Silver Braided Shield.
WBT 0102 AG Silver Plug installed.

View attachment 78780


View attachment 78779
Thomas
Looks to be an excellent job. Did you do this? If not who did?
Regards
Gerard
 

Lampie519

Well-Known Member
Mar 14, 2021
493
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Hoofddorp, Holland
That dog... is it on spikes? If not it could resonate on the motor.... ;-)
 

Syntax

Well-Known Member
Feb 26, 2012
259
307
970
At The Dark Side
Ready for comparisons, today I made it with the Royal Ballet 1. Reissue 180 gr from Classic Records and a Original Soria Royal Ballet, Decca recording for RCA ... first calibrated with Sutherland Timeline Strobe ... Speed is spot on
The differences are not subtle, the Soria sounds like the real thing with FR-64 64s / Koetsu Diamond Cantilever, the Classic Records sounds more modern, with better high frequencies and here shines the FR-66s with a modified FR-1 mk 3F but overall, the original has a more natural presentation, more like a few into the recording session ..


Home 1 - 1 (1).jpeg

Home 1 - 1 (3).jpeg

Home 1 - 1 (4).jpeg


uups ... do i have 2 Koetsus ...you know ...Stereo


:eek:


Home 1 - 1 (2).jpeg
 

Marcus

Member Sponsor
Oct 5, 2012
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Is your original Royal Ballet LP mono or stereo? Have you ever had a chance to compare these?
 

Syntax

Well-Known Member
Feb 26, 2012
259
307
970
At The Dark Side
1959 / Stereo / Made from Master tape

never saw a Mono, do you think there is Mono out there?
 

Marcus

Member Sponsor
Oct 5, 2012
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Oh yes and it’s much cheaper (if you can get it) than the stereo. A friend of mine got one for 180€…

989BFB76-D934-4F15-9081-1E3B4EEF7928.jpeg
 
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Syntax

Well-Known Member
Feb 26, 2012
259
307
970
At The Dark Side
Thank you for that information.
Did you ever listen to it or such monos in general?
 

Marcus

Member Sponsor
Oct 5, 2012
559
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Yes but not in my system unfortunately, so can’t comment.
 

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